“Giving Up” Isn’t Always A Negative Thing

A couple of days ago I shared a blog post from the consultant’s group I’m a part of, as I’m the main writer there. It’s titled Are You Doing What You Want To Be Doing?, and it asks an important business question; are you doing what you want to be doing, which I guess makes sense. Anyway, go check it out after you finish reading this article… yes, I want you to read this article. lol

Anyway, I posted it on Twitter and got a response back from someone I know saying “not even close”, or something to that effect. Since it came back pretty quickly, I had a feeling he hadn’t actually read the article, so I asked if he was commenting on the title or the article, and he admitted it was just the title, and that he’d read the article when he had some free time. I said he should because there was a question at the end of the article that possibly needs to be addressed: What is it you want to do?

He came back with a response that what he wanted to do wasn’t possible at this moment because of a physical issue. I asked him a question that I see on Twitter on a regular basis: “what are you willing to give up.” He said he didn’t have anything he could give up; I challenged that based on what he’d originally said.

At that point I used my own tale, a very shortened version of it. One of these days I’m going to tell that long tale… somewhere. Anyway, I said I had to come to an epiphany 19 months ago about my health & what I was willing to give up. That was after I’d had a very bad and serious thing happen to me while I was out of town, by myself, that could have been way worse than it already was… that’s all I’m going to say for now.

Anyway, at that point he said he understood, and he had made an appointment to meet with a fitness consultant. I applauded him for taking that first step, and trust me that’s a major step for anyone to do.

When I was growing up, I played a lot of sports. The concept of “giving up” was the worst thing anyone could do. Only losers gave up; I was never a loser. Even when there were things I couldn’t do well, such as stupid soccer (did I just say that out loud? lol), I’d keep playing, trying my best, but hating every minute of it. I wasn’t ever giving up; not in my vocabulary.

As I get older, I’m learning that I have to give up a lot of things, or at least modify them drastically. I give up some of my time to exercise. I gave up some of the foods I eat because my body can’t take them anymore. I gave up some of my time to participate on the boards of a couple of non-profits, one of which I was extremely proud to have been a part of. Sometimes you have to be willing to give up something so you can either make progress, help others, or just save part of your sanity.

Sometimes that thing you have to give up is a limiting belief. This is one I suffer from here and there. The problem with it is that you have to stay on top of it consistently, like you were a former drug addict or alcoholic. The feeling always comes back, and each time it comes back you think “I’m not breaking it this time”… yet most of the time we do, thank goodness.

Since this blog mainly talks about blogging and writing, let me ask a question this way – what limiting beliefs do you have about blogging or writing that might be holding you back? Have you given any thought to it?

The way I see it, there are only two things to consider. One, do you really want to blog and all the other stuff that comes with it? Two, if so, what are you willing to give up to do it?

I’m not giving you any help on this one. Heck, I gave a freebie in this post that I’m not sure if anyone even downloaded because no one’s mentioned it or thanked me for it; sniff! So, you’re going to have to do your own work this time around.

I am going to make this question more broad though, in case blogging isn’t your issue. You don’t necessarily have to tell me what it is you’re looking to achieve if you don’t want to. However, I’d like to know what you’re willing to give up to achieve… whatever. Go on, I won’t laugh… unless I have to. 😉

This post has 8 comments

I need to give up pizza and a couple of others things so that my diet doesn’t impede my ability to get back into the kind of shape I really want to be in.Jack recently posted…He’s Breaking The Rules Of Blogging

That’s something Jack. However, maybe instead of totally giving it up you resign yourself to only eating two pieces at a time. It’s still giving up but not to the extent that it becomes something that always consumes your mind. That’s what I did. 🙂

That’s an interesting way of looking at it Joleene and yet I know you’re totally correct on it. I do that same thing but wasn’t thinking about it as it pertains to this article. Yes, taking that little bit of time to wallow a little bit & then coming back and getting into the groove again is sometimes a necessary step to take for one’s sanity and peace of mind; great thought!

Thank you so much for this post @Mitch_Mitchell ! Its because of reading your posts that I’ve decided to make changes in my life, not small changes -big changes. I don’t know if I ever would have done them without being inspired here at impossible hq. I recently started to get complacent and accept what I wasn’t satisfied with, but after reading this, I think it’s time to run on at full speed and be willing to give up unnecessary things to do what needs to be done.

I had an entire set of beliefs that as it turned out, were based on a whole bunch of nothing.
Concepts handed down to me by others who meant well, but didn’t know any better.

When it came to anything I tried to achieve, my beliefs about life, myself and my abilities were what had always gotten in my way. Once I began to question these things (and start approaching life from a neutral perspective), I finally started to get an idea of what freedom meant.

I know my addition here may seem a bit off topic – and maybe it wasn’t what you were looking for.

But this, out of everything, was what I had to give up in order to make any real significant changes.

That’s great stuff Dana, and it’s a very important thing to give up. I actually understand it; when I gave up the belief that I could look at different foods and determine on my own how I could mentally control my glucose levels like that and realized I not only needed to step up the exercise but use a tool like Myfitnesspal, my health has gotten way better and I feel better also. It’s easy to give up something that hurts your body but harder to give up something that permeates your mind. Way to go! 🙂

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